The Feeling of Reborn Flesh
by morganbear97
Summary: This is about a regular Joe who, is only trying to get dinner, the normal, blood and bones and flesh of the living, but then he see's a girl who changes everything, like girls generally do.
1. Chapter 1

Authors note: If you like it please tell me so i can continue writing :D thank you so much for reading, hope you enjoy it, also i put this in the warm bodies category because it is similar to that book, but i do not use the characters or have the same story line.

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Gold and silver dresses twirled and spun around me in the soft gentle moonlight. Everyone was so happy, so full of life, except of course me. But how could someone like me ever be happy? They will never know I'm coming, never guess I'm smart enough to plot. That's because I use to be human, I may be pretty much dead now, but I'm still coherent…Is this the right word? Anyway, point being that they have no clue I can plot against them.

The very thought of their flesh in my mouth, soft , chewy, and warm, the happiness they had slowly drain out along with their life force…The idea made me want to smile, my face wouldn't let me of course, but it's the thought that counts. I was about to burst in, but then, I saw her. She was alone in the corner, long orange hair tied up, a baby pink gown caressing her sides.

Something in my chest hurt, pain I haven't felt in years, an ache that reminds me of when I was alive. The girl in the corner, with her lips ruby red, turned towards me and screamed at the top of her lungs.

The music stopped, everyone turned to face me from the other side of the window. I know I can't run fast enough so I just stand there, watching a crowd of at least 80 people watch me. Nobody moved for a while, time ticked slowly, but if they did I wouldn't have noticed much, because during that time I had eyes for only the orange haired girl, with black eyes and red lips, she was the first thing I could legitly say is beautiful in a very long time. Studying her closer I found that not only was her fiery hair pulled up, it was curled into a spring of ringlets.

I know it's too late to eat them, and I had long sense lost my appetite anyway, so I grunted and waved my hand in surrender and walked away, praying no one would shoot me. I don't want to re-die yet.


	2. Chapter 2

Seeing little kids with guns always amused me. When I see a six year old wearing a little pony nightgown pointing a glock at me, well it's funny.

If I could talk I would tell her that there's no reason to be afraid, but I can't talk, so I grunted and stumbled away. My chest still ached, and lately my sanity is becoming bothersome. My body Is like a giant cage. I can't be who I want to be in my current state.

Before last week I hadn't thought of being human in years, about that happiness I felt when I was alive, about how amazing love can feel, about well, anything that didn't involve getting dinner. But that girl, something about her made me CRAVE life. Crave her, and not in an eating way. The image of her all alone in that baby pink dress with her hair pulled back, made me smile. Not just WANT to smile, but actually smile. She brought me warmth and life, and I AM going to find her again.

I haven't a clue what I'm going to do when I see her. Images of holding her in my arms, petting her fire orange hair, making her laugh, smile…This is what is on my mind as I wonder aimlessly through the streets, no destination, only wondering, always this horrid empty sorrow that will never leave me alone.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to die, actually die, it might be better than wondering forever. But when I die it'll be by her fair hand. I eventually ended up in a giant lush garden, times may be ending for humans but the plants are living it I could smell my nose would be overwhelmed by the sweet delicate roses that were in full bloom, and the honeysuckles that soaked in the summer sun. The orange of a cactus' bloom reminded me of the girl, this made me, for the second time in many years, smile.

Again I noticed my lack of hunger, the ache that normally lived in my stomach had moved to, and wasn't leaving, my chest. A living bird even had the nerve to perch on my shoulder. I grabbed it and shoved it in my mouth, crunching slowly on the bones, and slurping its tiny organs. It tasted so wrong that I had to spit it out, which is saying something because I had lost my taste buds the day I had changed.

I swear my ache was thudding…almost like…holy shit! My arm slowly flew up to my neck and searched until it felt a tiny flutter, followed by another, then another, and they didn't stop. "Heartbeat." I murmur softly, which shocked me even more. "What hell?!" I demand loudly, unable to be fluent, but still impressive none the less.

A woman I hadn't noticed, who had been tending the roses, looked at the bird on the ground –or what was left of it- and then looked to my swearing undead mouth. Her jaw dropped and she screamed, which alerted every dead walking creature in a five mile radius. "Run. Now." I moan to get the words out, but they were loud and clear. She took my advice and ran for her life. The dead gathered slowly and saw the spat out bird, though it was small, a crowd of about twenty fought over the remains. I was grossed out; even I had more class than fighting for scraps.

Then I became re-aware of my pulse…maybe I should see a doctor…


	3. Chapter 3

I began to waddle to the hospital, finding it to be a very long walk, at the end of which I was panting. The sliding doors open as I stepped onto the black welcome mat. A few people looked up from the crappy waiting room chairs and screamed, some sat quietly in awe. "Hush, you're ok." I manage to say fluently, which hopefully convinced them that I wasn't here for a snack.

Because I am impatient I walk right into a doctor's room. Screw waiting. The doctor was a man in his late 40'S, black with balding hair, and terrified blue eyes. "I got a heartbeat." I mutter with bad grammar. "Remarkable! You…you can…speak?" He exclaimed. I nodded and sat on the wax paper covered table. The doctor mumbled about getting some tools…He left me alone the walls were bare, save a single mirror facing me.

My own reflection startled me, my clothing was torn and drenched in blood, my face was covered in cuts along with my arms and legs, but to me I looked…Alive. My skin wasn't falling from my bones, and my black medium length hair wasn't falling out, and my eyes…they looked haunted and tired but there was a soul behind them, a hidden life that wanted to escape. My skin was pale, but a rosy flush was peeking at my cheeks. I was actually pretty damn sexy.

The doctor came back into the room holding a bunch of pointy looking objects. For hours he poked and probed, for hours he found nothing. I felt minor pain but nothing too brutal. At last, right when he was about to give up, he noticed a marking on my left wrist. I stated at it, it looked like a jellyfish with a heart inside. "What happened here?" The man asked.

I thought about it, and suddenly remembered a sharp burning pain there, but not when or how. I shook my head.

"How did you…how are you able to…" The doctor flapped his arms uselessly at me.

"I saw…" The words caught in my mouth and made me choke. "A girl."

Doc gave me an odd look. I sigh and try again. "A girl with bright hair, then my chest hurt." I say.

"Hurt?"

"Heartbeat." I answer.

"This girl made your heartbeat? Did she give you CPR?" I shake my head no. "Just saw her." My words sound ridiculous as they leave my lips.

"It's a true miracle." The doctor was in awe. Doc said that he could do nothing more for me, but he also told me to clean up and try human life again. He even gave me a corndog to eat, which I did, and it was good.

I stumbled back through the waiting room, ignoring the wondering eyes, and left the hospital. I wondered until I found a long abandoned house and made it my own. I fixed the master bedroom until it was dead-creature proof. When I was done, I found myself completely wiped out. I haven't needed sleep sense the change, but now I fall onto the bed and sleep, and sleep and dream.


	4. Chapter 4, Alone

My dreams were filled with death and blood and the orange haired girl. In my dream she sat on a blanket next to a small lake that was so clear you could see the fish swimming happily at the bottom. She looked out, ignoring my presence. The air was fresh and crisp, thick with the scent of roses. I chose to sit on the grass instead of the blanket, feeling the blades under my shins, the life that wasn't to be destroyed in them. I looked at her until she turned and our eyes met, hers black as night.

"I see it worked." She said her voice soft as a bell.

"What worked?" I ask with perfect clarity.

She grabbed my left arm and turned my wrist up, and gently started petting the jellyfish with her index finger. It had four tentacles, the heart inside was black and blue. When she touched it my arm tingled.

"You have a destiny to fill." Her bell voice chimed.

"Does it involve you?" I wonder aloud.

She responded sounding slightly sad "No, I wish it did, but you have to find your own way. Just remember you have been given a second chance, use it."

And then I awoke in a cold sweat. I have a feeling that I would never see the orange haired girl again, but I ignore it and promptly fall back asleep.

The next day I woke up and took a shower. The feeling was a delight, the cool water rushed over my skin, washing off all the blood and dirt, and I became a new man. The home I had stolen once housed a man my own size, so I used his clothing; a dark blue plaid shirt and jeans. I finished dead-proofing the rest of the house, after being dead so long I knew how to keep away the unwanted.

I didn't know what my next step was to be though, should I try to find her? The feeling that she wasn't going to be found came over me again, and again I ignored it. I suddenly felt so pointless, like I had finished the last book in a long series, like the characters and background had fallen away, leaving me alone in a white empty space.

I looked around the house, seeing pictures of a happy family who had once lived here. People I hadn't known, but something inside me felt as though it was being pulled into a pool of emotions that I didn't like one bit. I missed my old state, I missed not feeling anything at all, now I feel confused and scared and alone and angry and sad and exited, but over all I feel empty, and bare. It's not as though my instinct is telling me what to do, I'm on my own now, for better or worse.


	5. Chapter 5, not alone

I turned to look out the window; a week has passed since I inhabited this home and two since I saw the orange haired girl. Now I watch the street, hoping that she'll just wonder past.

Today the clouds ahead were black and angry, shaking with thunder and lightning just waiting to escape. The dead don't like rain, I'm not really sure why, it just is annoying, it never seems to stop.

I know that if I am ever to leave this house in my human form, now is the time. No one will willingly venture through the pouring droplets, even for fresh meat. I find a pair of shoes in the back of the closet, and an umbrella by the front door. I take a deep breath, turn the knob, and step in to the ice cold drops.

Opening my umbrella I begin walking down the steps and onto the street. No one follows me as I go the two blocks down to the little market on the corner, the one I remember from my old life. It had closed down long ago and no one else (Meaning the lifeless jerks walking around) cared enough to go in.

There I use the only shopping cart with all four wheels and slowly go down each row of shelves. I grab all the bread with no mold, all the eggs (The fridge still was in use) all the milk that wasn't expired, all the yoghurt, all the….well, all the edible things left. I which as it turns out was a lot. Two trips, eight blocks, and "my" house was full of food, I put all of it on top of my king sized bed.

I make one more trip, with my cart in tow, to the abandoned wall mart. I'm terrified to enter, because I know the large building could be holding hundreds of hungry customers, but the doors slide open and I step through. Looking around carefully I see nobody, I begin inching quietly and slowly with my cart to the electronic section. I get there safely and put a mini-fridge into the cart, and then I go to the hunting section. Here I see a woman's remains in the corner, and a small child who looks alive huddling by it, crying softly. I step on a fallen package and surprise the young child; she looks up terrified but is relived when she sees the newly formed life in my eyes.

"Who are you?" she asks.

I shake my head and say softly "I don't know my name. But I won't hurt you, how long have you been here?"

My voice comes out strong but gently and kind. She seems to believe me; she gets up and looks down at the remains of whom I know guess was her mother. "I'm scared." She says flatly, giving me a tough look that may have worked if I didn't know how she felt.

She was alone, just like me, and in danger, just like me. "You can come with me if you'd like." I say softly.

"Better to not be alone."

She nods her small blonde head and looks at me with her sapphire blue eyes. "What's your name?"I ask,

as I grab rounds of ammo and glocks and other such items from behind the counter.

"My name is Sophie." She says in her small voice. "You said you don't have a name, what may I call you?"

I had already tried to remember my old name, the one I was born with, but had given up. I shrug. "What do I look like?" I ask.

"You look like a Marshall." She giggles as if it is a joke.

"Marshall it is." I say and turn in the general direction of the entrance.

"Let's go back to my place, I would prefer not being eaten in a Wal-Mart."

She says nothing, but I hear her tiny footsteps following me. Before leaving I pick out one more mini-fridge, just in case, along with a few cases of soda. We exit the store and step back into the cold rain.

"Where do you love?" Sophie asks gently.

"A few blocks down, but we'll be ok in the rain."

She nods and tries to walk under the umbrella with me. I feel yet another emotion and end up letting her have the umbrella. I don't mind the rain; it reminds me of my new beginning.

"How old are you?' I wonder aloud. She couldn't be older than 10.

"I'm 8." She answers.

"How long were you alone?"

"A long time, the monsters attacked mommy, but I hid behind the counter like she told me to." Her voice is full of sorrow.

"I'm sorry." I say, but she doesn't respond. Instead we walk the rest of the way in complete silence.


	6. Chapter 6, Midnight

We get home soon, and I hook up the fridges in the master bed room, Sophie helps me stalk the food inside the doors.

Once we are finished with our task we open the grape soda I had grabbed and sit on the bed, watching the Disney movies I found stalk-piled on the bookshelf near the big TV just across from us.

Sophie insisted on "The little mermaid" and I agreed, but I didn't watch the movie. Instead I looked around the large room, the family before had loved this room in particular, making sure it had movies and loads of blankets, A little cot had even been stored in the closet.

The walls were a light purple color and the room smelled of roses though none were in sight. On the wall farthest from the bed were childish drawings that had been hung many years ago, the paper had yellowed slightly, but they still hung proudly, showing off the happy stick family young girls had drawn –I had been through the entire house, and there were two little girls rooms, filled with fairies and princess bed sets and dolls alike.-

I offered one such room to Sophie, but she declined with the excuse of the beds being too small, her eyes however showed absolute terror at idea of being alone in this big house, which I completely understood. I told her she could have the big bed and that I would use the cot. I didn't sleep much anyway, not with the moaning outside, and the occasional screams in the distance, and certainly not with my nightmares, which as it turns out were more of memories.

Memories of my past years as a walking corpse, memories of tearing human flesh off of screaming mothers who begged me to leave their children be-that was long before I had learned self control however- I never harmed a child, a fact for which I am grateful.

"Marshall?" Sophie's small voice brought me out of my thoughts.

"Yes Sophie?"

"I heard a sound downstairs." Her body quivers as she says this, her voice terrified, tears begin to form in her gentle blue eyes.

"Don't worry; I won't let anything happen to you." I promise.

With that I am off the bed, gun already in hand as I walk slowly and quietly to the closed bedroom door. Sophie hit pause on the movie so the entire house became dead silent; I listen until I hear a moan from somewhere below.

"Stay here." I murmur.

The doorknob is slippery on account of the sweat pouring from my palm, but it turns without much hesitation. I walk out to the head of the staircase and look down. The house is dark but my eyes somehow manage to see a small movement in the corner of the living room.

The tip of my gun aims for the corner, and I put my figure on the trigger. Whatever it is makes no sound or movement, which I find odd. My hand hesitates to shoot.

I take one step down the stairs, then another.

No movement.

One more step and I stop, gun still at the ready. The thing moves. It comes into the stairways light, and I nearly laugh from relief. It is nothing more than a black cat.

I make tusking noises and it runs to me, I crouch onto the ground and reach my hand out for the kitty to smell; it does then he begins to purr softly. I laugh and gently pick the cat up, it cuddles into my arms and I stand.

I hear another noise however, a moan from the front-door. I look at the door for a moment and swear I hear a voice, calling for me, not by my name, just a wordless plead for me to leave the safety of my home.

I backup the stairs slowly, eyes not leaving the door, and back into the bedroom, shutting the door and locking it. Behind me Sophie calls my name, in my arms the kitty looks up at my face and meows softly, but I am unable to look at Sophie, or the cat for that matter, my mind only able to think of the wordless call from beyond the front door.

Something tugs on my sleeve and my head snaps down to see what's touching me. It is just Sophie; she asks why I am holding a cat, and whether or not we we're to die. I shake my head,

"We aren't going to die, and the only thing down there was this kitty." I smile at her and relief shines on her face.

"May I pet him?" she asks.

I nod and hand her that cat, who gives me a reproachful look, but cuddles up to the girl anyway.

"Can we call him Midnight?" Sophie begs. I am unsure if we should keep the cat or not, but the pleading of Sophie makes me give in, we can always get supplies at Wal-Mart after all.

The girl runs back to the bed happily, cat hugged tightly to her chest, and starts the movie again. My head stares back at the bedroom door, I must have imagined the voice after all…

The thought makes my left wrist burn, I cry out and look down at it, the jellyfish's black color had turned to a bright orange. The pain made my head ache; I clutched my left wrist with my right hand, praying the pain would end.

And then it stopped, stopping the ache in my head as well. Sophie is concerned but I wave her off and sit back on the bed; I stare at the orange marking for the rest of the night.


End file.
